


R&R on Alderaan

by OpalescentDragon



Series: R&R on Alderaan [1]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Alderaan, Cathar, Dream Sequence, Family, Feelings Realization, Gen, R&R, Slice of Life, Wedding, plus one
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-25 06:41:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9807806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OpalescentDragon/pseuds/OpalescentDragon
Summary: In the wake of debriefings, medbay visits, and an overbearing load of paperwork, Havoc Squad is given a short, but welcome, R&R break after the take down of the squad’s previous Commander, Harron Tavus. Sergeant Elara Dorne goes off to Coruscant to revel in medical lectures and seminars. Combat Droid M1-4X is shipped and shuffled between military science labs for repairs, upgrades, and general study. Captain Melladonia Xanadu makes plans to attend her little brother’s wedding on Alderaan. Lieutenant Aric Jorgan tries to contact his own family, only to find that they’ve gone on an interplanetary cruise, leaving him with nowhere to go for two whole weeks.





	

Lieutenant Aric Jorgan opened his eyes. Everything was blue. No, not quite blue, the colors were shifting. No, that's not quite right, they were swaying. That word felt much more appropriate. His sight slowly focused and he gradually became aware of his body. He found himself lying belly first in the midst of thick blue-green tall grass with his rifle held in position in his hands before him, comfortable and familiar. Ah, he was on a mission with the Deadeyes. Made sense. He looked around and behind, but there were no other members around. No spotter, no back-up. 

There was a gap through the tall grass where that his rifle poked through. He settled into position to look through the scope... And the sight before him shook him to his core. His mouth dropped open, and he uttered a loud gasp despite his training instincts telling him to keep quiet. Against all of his better judgement, he stood up.

He had only ever seen holovids and heard the stories and histories, but he recognized the Cathar landscape immediately. He stood on the edge of an immensely high mesa topped with a meadow of ocean green grass, in which bright silver-grey flowers bloomed all throughout. The vista over the edge displayed a vast golden savanna that went on into the horizon. He could pick out long meandering rivers and oasis-like watering holes that entire herds of creatures huddled around. He saw and heard birds dotting the intense blue sky. He watched as gigantic bubbling storm clouds rained down sheets on the land into the distance to the west. Of all the immense grandeur of the view, what stood out the most were the trees.

Colossal banyan trees dotted the rolling savanna. Each had an innumerable amount of massive sweeping boughs. On the ones closest to the cliff, he could make out incredible carvings circling the trunks. Curling artistic displays covered one trunk, while another sported incredibly detailed and impeccably measured geometric patterns. Each banyan was as unique as a fingerprint and denoted the history and culture of the tribe that lived there. Each tree was a work of art in it's own right.

He stared for what felt like hours, and only looked away when he realized that he was silently weeping. He quickly wiped away the tears before they soaked into the fur on his face. What he felt in this moment is something that he hadn't felt since he was very young, being held by his mother. A feeling of belonging. Of course, he had felt this way joining the military, and then again when he formed the Deadeyes, and he seemed to begin feeling it as a member of Havoc Squad, but _this_ , right here, was so strong it almost hurt. He was supposed to be here, he belonged here, this was _home_.

The emotion swelled until it hit a point, like a ceiling, that it couldn't push through. As good as being here felt, something was missing, and he couldn't put a claw on it. He bent down to retrieve his rifle, but it wasn't there. He felt a slight stab of panic and searched for a moment, but found no sign of where it went. When he stood straight again, he was surprised to find that he was no longer wearing his stealth armor uniform, but a set of traditional Cathar robes instead. He hadn't worn something like this since his coming-of-age ceremony, and even then only grudgingly. Now, however, it felt right.

At this point the disappearing rifle no longer concerned him. He was almost certainly dreaming. The realization saddened him, but how else would he be standing on his ancestral home planet? The Mandalorians took this reality away from him and every other Cathar in the galaxy when they invaded almost 300 years ago. All they had now were the holos and the stories.

He was taken out of his thoughts by his ears twitching at a sound. He looked around for the source, but found nothing but swaying grasses and flowers. He heard it again. It was a voice, but he couldn't make out what it was saying. He closed his eyes and focused. There it was again, an unmistakably feminine call from the center of the mesa,

"Aric..."

It was soft and muffled by distance. He decided to follow it.

He stepped softly through the tall grass, taking extra care not to crush any of the strange flowers. The sweet smelling blooms looked grey, but with closer inspection he could see grey swirl across the petals like a painter mixing white and silver, or, better yet, very much like the turbulent thunder clouds he had seen on the distant horizon. They were mesmerizing.

"Aaaarriic..."

The call snapped him out of the moment. He continued through the meadow and he began to hear flowing water. The sound crescendoed until it pounded in his ears. The air became heavy with foggy mist and tall trees coalesced into existence around him. A small river appeared in his path through the vapor, and he changed course to follow it downstream. He walked until the trees broke, and a rocky outcropping took their place. The river ended at the rocks. No, the rocks hung over a waterfall. The fog was created by the water hitting whatever there was below. Through it, he could just make out the silhouette of a figure standing at the edge of a large boulder.

She stood, looking away from him over the ledge, straight backed and firm, one hand by her side, the other resting on the rock face next to her. Her clothing was simple. Plain white tee with high-waisted black shorts. Her feet were bare, and her clothes and were soaked through from the spray. She didn't seem to mind the water or the height in the least. As he watched, her head lifted a bit and he heard the call again.

"aaaarriic..."

He assumed that it had to come from her, but still it sounded muffled and far away. The roaring water muddled it even further. 

"I'm here." He answered, but it came out barely a whisper. He tried again, with the same result, and the woman didn't stir. 

She paused for a moment, and her shoulders lowered a bit in what seemed to be disappointment. She looked back down to the lake below. Her dark hair was plastered to her face, and stopped just below her chin. His own fur and clothing were now damp as well. He called out again to no avail, and she didn't acknowledge him. She lifted her face to the sky and let her hand against the boulder drop to her side. He watched her shoulders lift in a deep breath and her hands clenched into fists. She released her breath and bent her knees..

 _She's going to jump!_ he frantically thought. Aric ran into the river to get to her. The water was bone chilling and much deeper than he expected, but he didn't let that stop him.

"WAIT!!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, just before the current swept away his footing.

The woman whipped around, wet hair fanning out, to look at him. He was barely maintaining eye level with the surface. He couldn't yell again without water rushing into his mouth, but he did reach out, and she reached for him. 

Her out-of-focus face would've been a much more startling sight if not for the dire situation he was in. He could hear her call his name over and over, still sounding distant. He was close to the edge now; she won't be able to get to him in time. He stretched and strained against the current, but couldn't quite make it. Just as he was starting to feel like he was done for, the woman dove into the water and grabbed him whole-bodily. _She's so warm_ , he thought, making him almost forget about the coming fall.

She stabilized them with both of their chins above the surface facing each other. She placed her hands on either side of his face. Her own face was beginning to clear and he could make out her mouth. She opened it, took in a deep breath, and-

"LIEUTENANT ARIC JORGAN, AH-TEN-SHUN!!"

His eyes snapped open and he flung his sheets off. Both feet hit the ground together and he rocketed up, heels clicking, one hand to his hip in a fist, the other to his brow in a perfect salute. He answered with the first words every soldier is taught to say,

"SIR, YES, SIR.!" 

His hand snapped to his side and he stood chest out, chin up, eyes still blinking away sleep as he waited.

All that greeted him was the sound of unbridled laughter, and he barely made out a choked off, "at ease soldier" before the words devolved into giggling. He relaxed a bit a looked in the direction of the noise.

In his doorway, rolling on the ground or beating on the door jam, were three women. The bright teal hair on one of them unmistakably belonged to his commanding officer, Captain Melladonia Xanadu. The others he recognized as her sister and a friend that he had met just yesterday. It was too early in the morning to deal with their kind of energy. He sighed and turned his back to them to make his bed, leaving them in their state of elation. He scowled slightly at renewed giggling, and then pushed it to the back of his mind as he focused. He looked at the bed, and thought that the geometric bed sheet pattern reminded him of something. Was it from in that dream he was having? What was it about again? He could vaguely remember lots of water, and another person... In true dream fashion, it slipped quickly from his memory as his wakefulness grew, and soon it was out of mind completely. He bent down to pick up the dropped blankets, and only then did he realize the source of their delight. He was wearing a pair of boxers that he had gotten as a gag gift from and old girlfriend.

The bright neon green ones.

The bright neon green ones that sported cupcakes with muscled up, flexing arms, and had the words "STUD MUFFIN" in bold around the waistband.

That was the last time he would ever get ready for bed in the dark.


End file.
